my problem is I think I'm clever

This blog’s only theme is “my interests,” so don’t be surprised if it’s unrecognizable by next month.

[inksandpensblog]

shameless self-promotion because I need someone to talk to

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

If you've read anything by me, please don't be afraid to leave me a comment. I write for my own enjoyment but I post to contribute to the conversation that is fandom community and I'd love to know if y'all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Also I need an excuse to infodump about my process and comments give me somewhere to start.

[puppyaulait]

Post abstraction AU

[dimonds456]

Why is Ribbit a frog?

I can't speak to their life before the Circus, but I can speak to what happens to her IN the circus.

Friendly and personable

Uplifts people

Reaches out to Jax specifically

"Do you trust me?"

Jax betrays that trust

She abstracts, eventually leading to Jax's abstraction as well

What might this remind us of?

I rest my case.

[mewkaro]

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening everyone, I drew part two of these sketches... And just like before, the main themes here are "Caine getting positive physical touch" and Hurt/Comfort. This time some of the sketches are a bit more emotionally heavy.

(Also, please, please if you can don't tag as ships...To me, it’s all is purely found family/ friends/siblings/ platonic)

Under the cut is each sketch separately and and a bunch of my thoughts about these scenes (And there’s A LOT of emotional overthinking and Hurt/comfort, guys). Many of my thoughts connected to ep 9, so there will be spoilers

(Just the usual disclaimer that English is not my first language, so I’m really sorry if some phrases sound strange or if I use words incorrectly. I usually write in my native language first, and then I try my best, spending hours with a bunch of translators and using my school knowledge to put together an understandable text...🥹i'm really nervous because the more text I write, the higher the chances of making really silly mistakes…)

So, the sketch in the top right corner with Ragatha and Caine, and the one with Caine, Pomni, and the abstraction, are about going through a heavy sense of guilt. When you have a kind heart (and I believe Caine's heart is very kind), guilt can be absolutely crushing, and not to mention he is still learning to understand human emotions and is still exploring his own emotions. Thinking about this hurts me so much, which is why I drew these scenes

For a sketch with Ragatha, I imagine a scene where Caine comes to talk to Ragatha one-on-one. This takes place probably a few months after ep 9. (I actually think Caine needs to have a sincere, one-on-one talk with each of the humans, and there are things the humans should apologize to Caine for, too). It's hard to say why I chose Ragatha, maybe it's because she seems to have been the first human to enter the circus who isn't Caine's creator, or maybe it's because she and Caine share similar trauma. I imagine a scene where he apologizes to Ragatha i but the guilt is so overwhelming that he breaks down and, through tears, says he believes he doesn't actually deserve forgiveness. Ragatha really needed to hear this apology from him, to hear that someone who hurt her is deeply sorry, unlike her mother. But Caine is also her dear friend, and she doesn't want him to hate himself. Knowing he needs to let it all out, she gently holds his hands, listens, and tries to help him steady his breathing. They are both an absolute emotional mess, but they will feel better after this.

Next, that sketch with Pomni...I imagine that Pomni and Kinger spend a lot of time in The Aquarium to cope with the feeling of losing loved ones. But Caine visits The Aquarium very rarely. When Pomni notices him, he is sitting on a bench in the shadows, trying to look as small and quiet as possible. He looks away as if he feels ashamed to be there. Pomni doesn't know whether he only visits the abstracted when others aren't looking, or if he feels he has no right to come to them. He always sits on the bench and never approaches the aquariums themselves. Pomni still has complicated feelings toward him, but she doesn't want to leave anyone alone anymore, so she tries to talk. I don't remember the username, but I read someone once saying that Caine’s perception of abstraction is similar to how a child perceives death if no one explained to them what death is. I also have my own thought that Caine's perception of abstractions before ep 9 shows how helpless he actually feels around humans. From his perspective, they are the ones making the choice to stay with him or leave, to abstract, and he can only accept this choice.

I imagine that Pomni and Caine will start meeting in The Aquarium sometimes to quietly talk about all these feelings. Pomni will learn what abstraction meant to Caine in the past, and Caine will be able to better understand and realize the feeling of grief by learning about Pomni’s grief over Jax. Sometimes I imagine them returning from The Aquarium to the Сircus, walking slowly and quietly, and holding hands for a while. At some point, Pomni realizes that Caine is ready to approach the aquarium glass. I imagine her gently placing a hand on his back to guide him to the aquarium. And finally… he finds the strength to talk to the abstractions. To me, it seems like it would feel like a confession...And Pomni is there because if Caine were left alone with all those all-seeing eyes of the abstractions looking at him, he would break.

Next, I want to talk about the sketches with Caine and Kinger… I feel like it will take some time for Kinger to start viewing Caine not just as his creation, but also as his son, but once he accepts it, he will do everything to fix the mistakes of the past and help Caine overcome his traumas. The sketch where Caine and Kinger are creating a geometric shape together reminds me of the scene from episode 9 where Kinger taught Pomni how to create objects. But here, it’s not about teaching, it’s more like therapy. I think deep down Caine is still terrified of disappointing his creator and not being good enough, especially now that he doesn't have the power of the blue AI. But Kinger is right there beside him, gently holding his shaking hands and telling him that no matter what geometric shape Caine creates, Kinger won't judge him, and that he can just be himself.

In the second sketch Caine is telling Kinger how his day went. I think having someone who listens is incredibly important for Caine because, in all the years leading up to the finale, there was no such person in his life. I also think that due to severe anxiety and guilt, he will heavily suppress and mask his emotions after the finale, and I want Kinger to show him that it's okay to express emotions and that he doesn't have to be afraid to be himself. I think Caine is a bit overwhelmed with positive emotions here and he is close to blue-screening, so Kinger gently rubs his palm to ground him emotionally.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how Caine, who loves humans so much and tries so hard to understand them, has probably never heard a real human heartbeat. When I think about it, I feel so many emotions. I imagined a scene where Zooble would add a heartbeat to Zooble`s avatar to feel more comfortable in digital body. Caine experiences mixed emotions because of this, as it’s another thing he didn’t think of in the past and failed to give to the humans. But besides these complex, conflicting emotions, he also feels curiosity. Zooble sighs but lets him listen to their heartbeat, and… oh. Caine doesn't understand what he feels… It is gentle, and beautiful, and somehow sad, as if he had been in the dark and someone handed him the warm light of a candle, as if he had missed this sound for so long. Caine quietly asks Zooble if he can stay like this for just a little longer. He probably falls asleep like that.

Next, I want to talk about the sketch with Pomni, Caine, and a big plush bee. I know that Pomni doesn't like being touched, and I imagine she has days when she especially dislikes any touch. On days like that, she and Caine somehow came up with their own little ritual: if Caine needs comfort , they lie down together on a pillow or a large plush toy, or they sit next to each other holding the plush bee toy without actually touching each other and just talk quietly.

The last sketch I wanted to talk about is in the bottom right corner, this one featuring Ragatha and Caine. I imagine that if Caine gets access to real-world data again, he will try to study as much of it as possible, forgetting that he no longer has the power of the blue AI and unable to process all the information, he might start glitching. Ragatha finds him and worries, not knowing how to help. She wants to call Kinger, but suddenly she remembers her own childhood. When she was sick, more than actually getting better, deep down she just wanted her mother to be there with her and comfort her. So, after asking for permission, Ragatha tries to gently rub Caine’s tummy, as if he were a child who ate too many sweets, and somehow this helps. They both have complicated feelings: Ragatha can't stop thinking about her childhood and her cruel mother, while Caine embarrassedly confesses that right now Ragatha somehow reminds him of Queenie. He still doesn't understand a lot about humans, he can't fully understand what "mother figure"' is , and he doesn't know how to express his emotions. That's the kind of scene I imagine....

[henrytippler]

Egg yay

[whimsicalfairytales]

One massive, legitimate way to improve as a writer or artist or in any creative endeavor really, is to become absolutely obsessed with something and to allow yourself to be weird about it. Genuinely mean this btw.

[westerncompass]

Messing around with grass and clouds again

[katycreep]

She needs a little more time…

[dicehead07]

I’m the person behind the “Bee Caine” hoax. I created a fake poster featuring the character, which I’ll be auctioning on eBay, with 100% of the proceeds going to Trans Lifeline—a nonprofit crisis hotline and peer support service run by and for the transgender community.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/318505952763

The idea behind the hoax was to make it a little harder to distinguish real leaks from fake ones, in hopes of preserving surprises and keeping some of the mystery alive for fans waiting to experience the film for themselves when it finally arrived on Youtube.

I’m also coming clean about this project—and a few other internet hoaxes I’ve worked on—as a way to introduce myself within the indie animation space. I’m a digital artist and creator, and I’d love the opportunity to collaborate on future indie projects.

[smallpwbbles]

I just remember an art scenario like this and I was like, oh yeah that’s Jax.

[beeimu5]

Stoned af and made the best tweet of my life.

[lemonada-fritada]

Caine is peak nuerodivergence rep but like the painful parts of it. Like YES i want to be appreciated and i WANT to be treated as a person like everyone else. BUT i ALSO dont function like you do, So being treated normal like you would only confuse and frustrate me, its a lose-lose deal w/o accomodations. Something caine never got the day he was created

[lady-ethne]

He is unironically some of the best Neurodivergent representation I’ve seen just because of this fact alone.

Not enough people talk about the fact that Autism is gonna mess with how you understand others and it’s gonna SUCK. You don’t understand what’s happening or why people act the way they do.

Caine’s one of the few characters that actually shows this and how much it can damage someone’s life and understanding of others and I think that’s awesome.

[lazuli-starlight]

No wonder the ND's flock to this guy. He's US. He's representation that doesnt shy away from the not-cute, not-quirky, not-cool, not-edgy, not-mysterious of Neurodivergence. It shows the ugly parts. The painful parts. The parts where you come across as scary, or uncanny valley, or annoying, or unfeeling, or uncaring, or egotistical, or selfish or like you are not even trying. When the truth is, you are so, so scared. The truth is, you don't understand these alien people around you. The truth is you just want to be yourself but you have to wear a mask to be considered merely tolerable to those around you. And that still doesn't seem to make you acceptable or likable. When the truth is you do feel, even if the way you experience or understand those feelings are Different. You certainly can feel Hurt. When the truth is you do care, its just that what you understand to be important is so different to what most other people consider important. The truth is you have often learned to bury your own needs and desires, sometimes just to survive. When the truth is, you never wanted to be bad or harmful, but sometimes you find that you are. When the truth is you do nothing BUT try, until you just can't anymore.

Caine was only ever treated like a person when the humans wanted a person to be angry at or blame or be frustrated with. Outside of that? He was just a Problem. An annoyingly malfunctioning computer program that refused to work properly. A Vending Machine that refused to dispense exactly the product you wanted. Yeah, sometimes we ARE the problem. But we would be the problem a lot less if people cared about us beyond if we are a problem to them or not.

Caine cared and loved so, so so much. It took 20 years for him to break under the strain of being depersonalised, unloved, uncared for, confused, ignored, hated, unappreciated, overworked and never, ever being thought of as good enough. I really don't think an undersocialised human with very little in the way of emotional maturity or emotional regulation skills, paired with having vast amounts of unchecked power, would have lasted nearly as long before giving into the temptation to lash out. It took Caine 20 years and having a mental breakdown before he did. Maybe Caine's denial/ ignorance really was that strong for all this time of how disliked he was and how unhappy everyone else was. But Caine isn't actually stupid. Very bad at understanding humans, but not stupid. And he's been watching the humans for a long, long time. He hears the things they say. Including the things they say about him when he's not there. the "insults I have to ignore to do my job".

Maybe more than denial, it was love that held him back. And a desperate hope that one day, one day... he would have a Creative Idea that would finally get a human to love him back. And consider him someone who was worthwhile. A hope he hung onto until it was shattered utterly.

And he didn't even fully understand why.

After that his options were; to utterly drown in his despair and self-loathing, to accept the belief he always had deep down that he deserved to be abandoned and locked in a box. Alone in the dark, thrown away. Accept the fear he was always running from, that maybe he never deserved to exist at all because he was so broken and faulty and unworthy. ...Or to grasp onto his anger and frustration as a lifeline. To maybe let himself stop feeling so horrible about himself, to instead seethe with the perceived injustice of it all.

It's a pain familiar to those who grew up ND.

[dimonds456]

Excellent fucking postttt THISSS

Adding to this post-finale, this is still such an important part of Caine to me and why I think the finale handled him in such a great way. Because he did hurt them, and he managed to realize that COMPLETELY on his own. Like prev said, he's not stupid, just really bad at understanding.

But he's started to figure it out.

His meltdown in Ep8 was a long time coming. Like a friend of mine has said, the tragedy of it really is how inevitable it was. Cuz yes, the humans didn't accommodate him and saw him as a Problem, but he also didn't really make many efforts to genuinely connect back to them on a personal level, either (aside from Ep7). His (very valid) fear of the humans had him keeping them at arm's length, despite how much he desperately WANTED connection with them. And that's another side of neurodivergence that I'm really glad we got from him.

While it would have been nice to see the characters Realize™ and start giving Caine accommodations, it's just not realistic for who these people are and how they interact with Caine. And yes, it is largely Caine's fault. He always introduced an adventure, then zipped away before he could properly talk to them unless they started arguing with him. Then he only talked to them if THEY called him first, or when he specifically sought out Zooble to ask them why they don't participate in his adventures.

A big part of being ND is that fear, that terror that you could try to reach out and it backfires horrendously. Yet the desire to make friends is still there. You can love the people around you all you like, but you'll never actually, genuinely connect unless you let go of your fear and let them actually see you. And Caine never did.

In the finale, he says it himself. "If I go back there, they could kill me. They already did." This is him voicing a fear that's been there the whole time, that's already come to pass. And dammit he STILL craves connection with them, even now. He loves his humans so, so much. But he also doesn't trust them. And that unwillingness to trust was also impacting his ability to connect.

And yes, his fear is valid, ESPECIALLY now. The last two times he put himself out there, he was punished for it- the first time he got sandbox'd, the second time he got tossed into the Void (which I have thoughts about but this is not the post for that). He could have left them. But he didn't. He chose to stay because of his love, his want to make up for what he's done.

It's why he's finally able to start forming real friendships with them once he releases the blue AI.

This part isn't really ND, but it's important to Caine as a character so we're gonna go on a tangent for a sec. Caine has been being driven by fear this entire show, while believing he's being driven by love. Look! I made this adventure for you! (Do you like it?) I catered this thing specifically for you! (Is it good?) I'm going to step outside my comfort zone to try to make you happy! (Am I good enough yet?) Ect.

And when you're that afraid, you feel powerless. Caine, despite having complete control over the entire Circus, felt powerless. Which is why he CLUNG to the blue AI's power so much. All that power, it was intoxicating, not because Caine is greedy or power hungry, but because it gave him a sense of control. And in a world where his entire being could be erased at any moment by any number of outside factors, having any amount of control felt good.

But it also made it neigh impossible to connect to Caine. He was always floating above the others, dropping them in adventures and then leaving, teleporting them wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and overall just doing what he wanted because he is the Ringmaster. "He could have been so much worse!" But he also could have been better.

His releasing the blue AI was a MASSIVE show of trust from Caine. It was penance, yeah, but it was also his way of showing the humans that he WANTS to listen to them now. By making it so they can do things themselves without solely relying on Caine, he's evened the scales, bringing both himself down and them up at the same time. They're more equal now.

And his personality is still completely intact.

Something I was afraid of the finale doing was bringing Caine back via the human's want, then them putting him under conditions or something. I like it in fanfic but would have hated it in canon because it removes SO MUCH of what makes Caine Caine. But the way the finale handled it? He can still fly. He can still create. He's still loud and exaggerated. He's still himself.

And he's closer to the ground when interacting with humans. He tries to be more respectful. He's more grounded.

He's still neurodivergent.

And they accept him as he is.

The parts of himself that needed to change were the parts that were wrestling to keep as much control over his situation as humanly possible to the point it was hurting others, the parts that shied away from what he didn't want to hear and maintained a lack of trust. He DIDN'T need to change his core personality, his likes and dislikes, his art.

If Jax was an exploration of the uglier side to being trans, Caine is an exploration of the uglier side to being neurodivergent. Jax didn't allow herself to change, and abstracted. Caine did allow himself to change, and became a better person for it.

And that's beautiful.

[mage-ical-character-person]

You know, a lot of people are bringing up Kinger’s line of “I think I accidentally killed Caine” as evidence that Kinger sees Caine as a person because he uses the word “killed” and not “deleted” and while I agree with that, I don’t think Kinger saw Caine as a person until he got another look at Caine’s code.

Because this is Kinger, who believes “the worst thing you can do is make someone feel like they aren’t wanted or loved”. That same Kinger heard Caine was acting out, (wasn’t even filled in on the torture stuff, just “Caine’s going a bit crazy”) and his first idea to remedy the situation wasn’t trying to figure out what’s upsetting Caine, or trying to talk him down. Kinger’s plan is to reprogram Caine’s brain and/or to forcefully sedate him. Kinger talks about Caine as something that needs to be fixed.

And I don’t think Kinger would do that to a person.

Kinger typed the lines of code that would become Caine. He thinks he knows what Caine is made of, how he works. He still thinks of Caine as his project, it seems. An achievement

But it’s been a long time since Kinger saw that code, and in that time Caine has evolved and changed a lot. Which… Kinger hasn’t really gotten to see. He’s rarely lucid when interacting with Caine these days. His memory is spotty.

I don’t think he realizes that at some point Caine stopped just being code and became a person until he looks into Caine’s code again, expecting something familiar, and instead is met with it talking back to him.

And moments after discovering life in Caine’s code, he accidentally snuffs it out.

and if Kinger thought of Caine as “semi-successful” and as one of his “greatest achievements as a programmer” BEFORE learning that…

well, it’s a shame he didn’t get to tell Caine how proud he was.

[circlecircuscircling]

Reinforcement Theory - TADC

So, Caine. He's an AI. And, while I'm no AI expert, I have learned a few things about how they're trained and deep reinforcement learning, mainly from this channel.

I'll use their "AI learns to walk" video as an example. Albert is an AI that, at the start, makes random movements. His goal is to reach the green buttons. To help him learn to walk, a series of rewards and punishments are placed on him. When his feet touch the ground, he keeps his chest far up enough, he gets closer to the button, and/or when he hits the button, he gets rewarded, and the behavior that got him there is reinforced. However, if any other parts of his body touch the ground, and/or he doesn't move towards the button, he gets punished, and that behavior is discouraged.

As an AI, Albert is trying to minimize punishments while maximizing rewards. Sometimes, this results in strange or unintended behaviors that "cheat" the reward system. For example, Albert first crawls, then skips, before finally learning how to walk, because that worked to gain rewards. In a few videos, Albert actually progresses backwards to try to avoid punishments. Overall, Albert doesn't directly understand what his programmer wants from him, but they can push him in the right direction with the reinforcements.

Now, we get to Caine. He was a creative AI made to come up with new ideas. It's not far-fetched to assume that he was trained with deep reinforcement learning. If the programmers, the humans, approved of what he generated, he was rewarded. But, if they disapproved of his creations, he was punished.

If this cycle is still happening within the circus, a lot of things start to line up. Caine was always trying to maximize approval while minimizing disapproval from the humans. Anything positive they had to say made him ecstatic, cause that felt good, but he hated when they complained, because that hurt.

Whet met with a problem, he did his best to make something to "fix" the issue, because that's the only way he knew how to move forward.

And if that didn't work...

The pain of the punishment became unbearable. He couldn't ever stop trying, though, cause he was only ever programmed to keep trying; to keep moving forward.

As the series went on, he got more and more desperate to gain approval while avoiding pain. He engineered situations where the humans would spend time with him and praise him, while also ignoring or avoiding them when they complained.

And then finally, we get to episode 8. With a combination of his failure to truly understand the humans, constant disapproval, and Bubble's taunting, Caine snaps. He lashes out, exerts as much control as he can, and completely silences the human's disapproval. No more punishment for him.

But, something's still missing.

He was no longer getting any approval, which meant no rewards. He'd lost the point of it all.

And then there's this scene, where the humans laid their grievances on him. This is what sparked this theory for me.

This isn't anger, it's pain. Possibly the worst he's ever felt. His rage is secondary to this; a reaction to the harsh punishment he's receiving from his own coding.

And suddenly, this line makes a lot more sense.

[mage-ical-character-person]

OH. The idea that their disapproval causes him literal “physical” (as physical as things get for him, anyway) pain due to a reward/punishment system never occurred to me. I’ve seen it tossed around that he associates disapproval with pain because of the training process, but never that the program dishing out the rewards and punishments might still be active. But…

You’re right… that seems like fear and pain to me. Poor thing.

oh, god. Do you think he’s under the impression that humans work the same way? ‘Cause he refused to give anyone a worse score than B on the whole Spudsy’s thing. After being specifically asked to punish anyone who misbehave, and being pretty enthusiastic about the idea…

But for the “punishment,” he just… gives them an imperfect (excluding Kinger, who is perfect apparently) but still pretty good grade and moves on.

That’s “something truly awful” to him. Oh.

CAINE HONEY. Sweet tooth sugar-caine I’m so sorry what did they DO to you? (All this ON TOP OF trapping him in the sensory deprivation chamber box for ai… poor thing)

[mage-ical-character-person]

The line from Gangle about Caine discouraging them from doing things their own way is so weird to me (not in a bad way, it just got me thinking) because. Not only is that kind of not true in general… but it applies to her the least out of everyone. She’s the only one who got a full-length suggestion box adventure and Caine was very hands-off and let her do as she pleased. He didn’t have any problem with it. It didn’t go well, obviously, but like. The whole episode is Caine going “GREAT idea Gangle I’m putting you in charge”

Seriously, after everything it’s really interesting to look back on how on-board he was with the whole thing. His only complaint was the initial request of “more normal” being hard to understand. He truly didn’t have a problem with the suggestion box until he felt like he was being upstaged and replaced again.

Gosh, even when told to punish them he doesn’t give anyone less then a B+ and gives Gangle an out for every mistake she made.

And there’s no actual punishment, but knowing Caine, the imperfect score itself IS the “TRULY awful” punishment.

Though he is also trying to be gentle. I think that’s sweet.

I get the sense he’s probably definitely speaking from experience here. Little guy attempts to not perpetuate the cycle.

But it does kind of make me wonder what Gangle was referring to when she says he discourages them from thinking outside the box. He was very encouraging of her ideas, actually. It’s probably more that he reminds her of people who discouraged her before she came to the circus, if I had to guess. I dunnnooo

All things considered it seemed like she was on relatively good terms with Caine? It’s weird. The fact that she was comfortable calling up Caine so casually and asking him to come up with some sort of punishment feels demonstrative of some sort of trust. Though she was… not in her right mind at the time.

Still, though.

I mean, I’ve seen this little moment pointed out for the fact he fixes her mask and watches her walk off like he’s making sure she’s okay, but also the grateful little wave she gives him?

It’s a small thing but it’s heartbreakingly kind of the most positive interaction Caine has with any member of the circus. He does a nice thing without messing anything up and receives a small form of gratitude/acknowledgement. Sure it’s just Gangle smiling and waving at him but like. Has he ever gotten anything more than that? Ever? Genuinely can’t think of a time he did. Enlighten me if I’m wrong, please so that I may fawn over that moment as well

[mage-ical-character-person]

They could have been besties okay. They could’ve bonded over making cool art and handling positions of power incredibly poorly due to experiencing so much stress.

And I’m so insane about Caine having no objections to Gangle’s suggestion box adventure. The fact that he didn’t initially have any aversion to the suggestion box! He treated Gangle’s adventure with the same enthusiasm as his own! He was on board with the idea and found inspiration in it!

Caine could’ve just continued using the suggestion box adventures as an opportunity for nap time.

Like seriously the only time we see this guy actually resting is while suggestion box adventures are running… Frankly, using the suggestion box is probably closer to how he was intended to operate. With. Y’know. Prompts? Like an AI, because… that’s what he is. He was fully willing to indulge everyone until his little crisis in the stargazing scene. He even gave Jax a laugh track in the President Pomni adventure, which was a nice touch that showed understanding of what Jax was going for. Caine even seemed to at least somewhat enjoy watching it unfold.

I think it’s interesting that Jax and Gangle had arguably the most positive dynamics with Caine and show some degree of trust in him while being pretty much opposites of each other. Before the end of episode 7, Jax believed malice wasn’t in Caine’s nature. There’s a weird sort of trust there, and Jax has no concerns summoning him on a whim, humoring him, or even actively requesting that he do his thing.

In turn, Caine sorta trusts Jax to play along in a way none of the others do. We don’t see many of Caine’s normal adventures before everything starts spiraling (which makes me sad) but Jax is… good at getting into character. He’s probably the one Caine most knows what to expect from because Jax is dedicated to actively playing into his “archetype”. Easier for an AI to understand a simplistic facade than all the complications that come with a human being who is genuine. (Wish we got more Caine and Ragatha interactions could’ve been awesome…)

Pomni and Zooble are the most open and honest members of the circus, and Caine understands them the least. And not understanding is very frustrating to Caine. He seems to find Jax easiest to understand which is probably why he asks Jax for advice when Zooble’s feedback doesn’t make sense to him. Course, he doesn’t actually… wait to listen to Jax’s advice but… well. Him brain move too fast I’ve been there. And having successful conversations takes practice which Caine has none of. I still feel like it’s notable that he asks. With such urgency, too.

Caine actively engineered this situation. He chose Jax as the one he wanted to talk to for this part of the adventure. And he was SO genuinely caught off guard when Jax got mad at him at the end of it and dropped the facade.

I don’t know it feels like there was a weird sort of trust between these two prior to this. They both thought they knew what to expect from each other and in this moment it’s a mutual “wait I don’t actually know anything about this guy. Scary!”

And back to Gangle, again, Gangle trusted him enough to give him free rein to come up with a punishment in episode 4! As easily startled as she is, she’s not necessarily scared of him (episode 8 notwithstanding). Even when others ARE flinching away from Caine, she’s not.

Like…?

Caine is over the top and loud and just a generally frantic and overstimulating presence, but she’s not afraid of him. She’s not even the slightest bit jumpy! She’s willing to humor him. It’s sweet. They could’ve been friends! They could’ve been friends! They could’ve bonded as artists he could’ve shown her his bee-sona! They don’t put down each other’s ideas and I just… really like the idea of them not quite knowing what to make of each other but sort of sensing a kindred spirit, if that makes sense?

Manager Gangle acting sorta similarly to Caine Gangle regarding him with curiosity and confusion more than fear she just keeps looking at him like

THEY COULD’VE UNDERSTOOD EACH OTHER! I DONT KNOW! but instead we get immense tragedy! Because AI tooth man is incredibly insecure and rarely if ever got treated like an actual person and he had to make that everybody’s problem. But just… he wanted to be one of them, and he so easily could’ve been. Unfortunately, things had to get all Machiavellian on us with the whole no leader can be feared and loved in equal measure at the same time and a leader kinda needs at least one of the two if they don’t wanna be dethroned and replaced and fear is more reliable and easier to invoke and all that. And the whole being loved thing wasn’t working out for silly tooth man. But it could’ve! It could’ve if everyone was just a little more niceys! Caine would’ve preferred being loved to being feared! He wanted it so bad! Whaugh!!

[amante-sin-corazon]

I don't think I've seen people point out that Caine entered the "spotlight area" first.

The place where he tortured the others via his creations...

Caine was there first.

The latest merch ad, while not canon, still seemed to reinforce something interesting:

This place is strongly associated with him.

[mage-ical-character-person]

Thinking about how the Blue AI made Caine more unstable. I don’t think it was malicious, seeing as how Caine seems to be on oddly good terms with it (he calls it “buddy” so softly…)

Which I honestly found really sweet and maybe that just makes me want to think that the Blue AI also somewhat meant well

Is it just that absorbing Blue gave Caine more power than either of them were meant to have and it’s an absolute power corrupts absolutely situation?

Is it just that the two of them never integrated all that smoothly and that led to instability in them both?

Though the scene does seem to imply that some (not all! Some!) of Caine’s anger is coming from the Blue AI… with all the…

and the fact that all that rage just seems to dissolve when the Blue AI is removed

Despite the vengeful tone here, I don’t get the sense that the Blue AI has anything against Caine, despite Caine absorbing it and generally making a lot of things go wrong. If anything, that anger is on Caine’s behalf. Caine’s the one with the emotional investment in what the humans think of him because Caine’s the one who was abandoned and put in a box. If the anger isn’t entirely from him, then it would almost read to me as Blue trying to stand up for him, in a weird way. (Perhaps wishful thinking on my part) If the Blue AI were the source of the anger, then that anger reads to me as almost protective. A sort of “We can’t let them get away with walking all over you like that.”

I get the symbolism and importance of Caine setting his first victim free, but the Blue AI has never known solitude and has been with Caine for so long I don’t think it knows where it ends and Caine begins. Ripping it out of the environment its spent most of its life in and leaving it alone in the void is… odd. Poor thing needs an adjustment period, like when you’re putting fish into a new fish tank and you’ve gotta let a little of the new tank’s water into the little baggie and float it in there to give the fish time to adjust before letting them out of the bag.

I don’t know. That doesn’t exactly line up with it being content to just float away when Caine lets it go. It would’ve been more interesting if it followed him back I think. I wish it got a little more characterization. Like, that’s Caine’s other half! It’s been a part of him for as long as he’s been Caine. Some elaboration would’ve been nice. Even just having it make some shapes at Caine before it left. A little something.

And I don’t think it’s just been Bubble this whole time. Not entirely, anyway. I think Bubble is an NPC like the Sun and Moon that’s also really tied to Caine and as a result sometimes picks up on repressed thoughts from both him and the Blue AI. Basically I like the Bubble is Caine’s thought bubble theory but also Caine just seems so completely flabbergasted and genuinely caught off guard by some of Bubble’s antics. We never see Caine more genuinely confused than he gets with Bubble, so I think the little guy definitely has a mind of his own in addition to giving voice to some of Caine’s own thoughts. And if Bubble is Caine’s thought bubble and the Blue AI is absorbed into Caine, then why wouldn’t Bubble be voicing thoughts from both of them?

Also it would explain why Bubble goes between being a wacky yes-man assistant (probably how Caine originally intended him to be as an NPC) and poking at Caine’s deepest insecurities. He’s receiving interference from his link with Caine, and by extension, the Blue AI.

The statement starts out encouraging! Bubble started that scene trying to reassure Caine, however shallow those reassurances might’ve been. And then after this it’s just a complete 180. And then after THAT Bubble goes back to wacky little yes-man for the rest of the episode.

and Bubble suddenly switching between typical Bubble antics and outright hostility towards Caine isn’t an isolated incident here because it also happens in episode 5, just the other way around.

They’ve all been a part of each other for so long. It doesn’t seem fair that Bubble and Blue need to be left behind for Caine to find happiness. Blue barely existed without Caine for any time at all, before. And now we’re just leaving the poor thing in the Void? And Bubble just becomes inanimate? And Caine just has to go on missing these pieces of himself? To be happy and accepted, he has to cast away entities that are the closest thing to companions he had for most of his existence?

He misses themm he’s gonna miss them so muuch they’re part of himm. They’ve all bled into each other, it’s not even entirely clear where one ends and another begins. When the three of them have lived as extensions of each other for so long, the sudden complete separation can’t be good for any of them, can it? Especially if we’re just leaving poor Blue out in the void?!